Woman burnt to death in car fire

A woman was charred to death and her husband suffered 70 per cent burns when their Wagon R car caught fire on Saturday afternoon.

S. Kanjilal (38) and his wife Shubha (35) were on Nelson Mandela Marg in Vasant Kunj around 5:45 p.m. when Lal suddenly noticed smoke coming out from the car's bonnet. The couple were coming from Gurgaon.

“The man tried to move his car to one side of the road but the fire spread immediately. They didn’t have time to escape,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity, as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

“They couldn’t remove their seatbelts in time.”

Police said other motorists managed to get Lal out of the car but his wife Shubha (35) was trapped and couldn't be saved.

Eyewitnesses said the car's doors were also jammed and the fire department officials had to cut open the doors.

They said the woman couldn’t be saved and she was dead by the time help arrived. She charred to death on the seat itself.

The doors of the car were also jammed and fire brigade officials had to use cutters to open them up. The victims are residents of Aya Nagar.

“An ambulance and fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The husband was taken to Safdarjang Hospital by a PCR but the woman was already dead,” said a fire brigade officer.

Police said Kanjilal’s condition was critical.

“Prima facie it appear to us that there had been leakage of petrol in the car which led to fire,” added the officer.